The first church we visited was the Church of Saint Barbara. It sure looks like a cathedral, but it’s actually just a church that’s built like a cathedral. I say “just” a church, but in an area known for its gothic cathedrals, this particular church is actually a standout.
It’s sure big for a church, right?
The ornamentation inside these large religious structures always amazes me. The structures themselves are incredible, but then there are all the murals and statues, stained glass and carved wood, and painted ceilings. Very, very high ceilings at that.
Yep, it really was wood. This was the first large church/cathedral we’d seen with pieces like that made of wood instead of stone.
If you look closely, you can tell it’s wood.
It always takes longer than expected for us to see these huge religious buildings.
I have no idea what these things are called, the little statues sticking out that serve as outlets for water downspouts, but I was delighted to see the next one…
I’d seen some that sorta looked like a frog before, but none that were so clearly a frog.
There’s a nice view of the town from just outside of the church.
From there, we headed to the outskirts of Kutna Hora to see a VERY different kind of church, The Ossuary (bone church) at Sedlec. There IS a cathedral near the ossuary, but we had a long day on the road ahead of us, so we skipped it.
According to one CR tourism website…
Kutná Hora is known for the curious “Bone Church” or Ossuary (in Czech, Kostnice). It is located in the suburb of Sedlec. The Ossuary is in the undergroud chapel of the Church of All Saints. It contains the bones of about 40,000 people who died of the plague in 1318 and during the Hussite wars in the 15th century. They were originaly buried at the church cemetery. When the cemetery was closed at the end of the 15th century, the exhumed bones were transferred to the chapel and compiled into pyramids. In 1870, František Rint of Česká Skalice arranged the bones and skulls into creative decorations that include bells, the Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms, and a chandelier.
It was cool to see, but creepy. I mean, those are real bones of people.
It was an interesting place for sure!
On a lighter note…
Here’s a site with some history of the place for those of you who want the story.
And for those who want to see more pics, the Flickr slideshow is embedded below.
Have always found those displays of human bones and skulls a bit on the freaky side.
That was my first ossuary. Now I can say I’ve seen one.
The bone church is really one of a kind… in a weird and very disturbing way. You pics however, are brilliant.
Thanks, Sonja. 😎
Pretty odd display…
It is nice to have someone help set up this tour!
Richard, agreed on both counts. Annelies and I usually do a very good job planning together. It really is awesome to have someone else help figure things out!
I actually had to google the difference between a church and cathedral after this. Apparently size does matter.
Those bones are interesting.
B, “interesting” for sure. Cathedrals are also different from churches in that they are seats for bishops.
Those water downspout statues are called gargoyles. 🙂
What is the purpose of the bone church? I saw similarly large collections of human bones in Phnom Phen, Cambodia, but they were from the infamous ‘killing fields’ and they weren’t exactly arranged artfully.
Shan, basically they ran out of space for burials and thought it would be more respectful to store the bones rather than trash them. Some hoarder, apparently.